Vase Catalog Number: Austin 1980.32

Essay: Shapiro No. 40

Attic Black-Figure Neck Amphora of Panathenaic ShapeCollection of the Archer M. Huntington Art Gallery, the University of Texas, Austin, James R. Dougherty, Jr. Foundation and Archer M. Huntington Museum Fund Purchase (1980.32)
Ca. 540 B.C.Height: 27.5 cm.Diameter: 17.2 cm.Side A: Athena.Side B: Flute player between two judges.

The vase is of the same shape as those given to victors in the Panathenaic Games, and the pose of Athena on side A is similar to that on prize amphoras. But this is not a prize vase, for it is too small and lacks the inscription TON ATHENETHEN ATHLON ("From the Games at Athens") running alongside one of the columns that flank Athena.

On side A, Athena stands in the pose of the promachos ("who fights in the forefront"), fully armed; she held a spear in her upraised left hand. She wears an Attic helmet, with a high crest projecting from a simple cap, a necklet, long belted peplos, and her aegis slung crosswise so that three snake heads are visible behind. Her shield, with a wide rim painted in red, has as a device three large white balls. She stands between two slender Doric columns, on top of which perch owls, in place of the cocks which regularly stand atop the columns on Panathenaic prize amphoras. The owl is Athena's (hence Athens') bird.

On side B, a young flutist (auletes) stands on a three-stepped podium (bema) and plays, while two seated figures listen. The auletes wears a loose fitting chiton, a fillet around his head, and a phorbeia, or leather mouthpiece which helps hold the flutes in place. One of the listeners is beardless, the other bearded; both sit on folding stools and wear a striped himation over a chiton.

Because of the Panathenaic context - the vase's shape and the Athena of Side A - it seems likely that the seated listeners are judges and that the scene refers to musical competitions which took place at the Greater Panathenaea in Athens every four years. Literary and epigraphical sources do not confirm the existence of such musical contests before the fourth century, but this vase and several others suggest that in the sixth and early fifth centuries there may have been as many as four musical events: flute-playing and lyre-playing, either alone or accompanying a singer (a lyre player could accompany himself). These musical competitions, along with contests for rhapsodes, who recited passages from Homer, may have all been introduced with the major reorganization of the Panathenaea in 566 B.C. The earliest of the vases, about 560, is an amphora of Panathenaic shape in London (London B 141), on which a flute-player and a bearded man stand facing each other on a low platform, between a young athlete and a seated judge. Perhaps this scene represents the contest for aulodia, singing to the flute, while ours shows auletria, or unaccompanied flute-playing.

Keywords:

aegis, armed, Athena, ball, bema, cap, chiton, column, concert, fillet, helmet, himation, holding, listening, man playing aulos, owl, peplos, playing, promachos, shield, snake, spear, stool, wearing

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